#AddingThatOneToMovieNight #KeanuReevesIsHusbandMaterial #AfterCronus
Rhea, who paused to our right, turned and met Cronus’ gaze. She nodded once, and he returned that gesture, no doubt telling her to move her ass.
She sprinted silently toward a tree, just as Zeus and Ares appeared through a thicket of dense bushes. Zeus snarled at his mother, and in return she sent a wall of frigid wind at her son. It was two seconds from slamming into him when everything stopped. Everything except Rhea, Cronus, and me.
“Where is it?” Cronus asked Rhea. Meanwhile I was giving Zeus a “fuck you” sort of smile. No rules, assface. Try to beat the god of time, I dare you.
Rhea nodded. “There’s a dead spot at the top of that tree.” She pointed to a trunk that was huge, gnarled and twisted like the thing was a hundred years old.
Cronus took a deep breath and then let it out, the top of the tree’s leaves whistling in the wind. “Yes, you’re—”
“Uh, babe…?” I tapped his shoulder and pointed to Zeus. Black inky swirls were dancing off of his body as his fingers twitched. Shit, maybe I shouldn’t have mentally challenged him.
Cronus growled. The sins were clearly helping Zeus fight the time freeze.
“Cover me, Rhea.”
Cronus leapt for the treetop, jumping like a fucking monkey and hanging on to the branches halfway up. One of them snapped and my heart leapt into my throat, but Cronus saved himself by leaping to another branch. Rhea stepped before her son, building up a wall of ice around him, starting at the ground like an igloo and branching upward to encase him inside.
The Titans around me started to move and wiggle, and I could tell Cronus’ hold on time was slipping.
“Maisey!”
I ran under the tree, looking up through all the branches to find him.
Something red and shiny dropped from his palm, and by instinct I reached out and caught it. Cronus must have used magic, because I never would have managed that move otherwise. Glancing down at the gem, I shook my head. Fuck, that would have been near impossible to find without Phoebe’s energy realization.
“Hide it!” Cronus shouted, before he disappeared from sight, no doubt getting back down the tree.
I did what any woman would do when she needed to hide something quickly … shoved it in my bra. My arms fell to my sides just as everyone started moving again.
Zeus bellowed in fury as the icy igloo that contained him shattered into hundreds of pieces, but before I had time to stress about his temper, Cronus grabbed my hand, blinking us away.
We landed back near where my tent had been, a few yards from where Narida sat on a high-backed chair, the trunk of sins beside her. I was reaching into my bra when I felt Cronus’ hand yanked away from mine.
I spun to find Zeus had wrapped a black noose of sins around Cronus’ neck.
“You froze time!” he roared. “That’s not fair!”
Cronus reached up and placed his hands around the black slithering snake of power, slowly ripping it from his neck. “No … rules.” He loosened it more. “Anything goes. It’s not my fault you were born with weak powers.”
The god of thunder’s eyes went completely black.
He was really pissed, but the stupid fuck had forgotten one important fact. Cronus was not the only badass here. Reaching into my bra, I yanked the red jewel free, keeping it hidden in my hand. It took me five steps to get to Narida, who was watching me with a grin. Reaching out my hand, I dropped the jewel on her lap. “I got it. For team Titan.”
She seemed to mull this over. “You speak for them?”
Bitch, don’t fuck with me.
Cupping my belly, I growled. “I am carrying one of them. You said no fucking rules. End the tournament, Narida … we won.”
She sighed as if I’d taken away her fun. With a snap of her fingers, purple magic shot out and I was blown back a few inches. In the tree above us, fifty points were added to the Titans’ score, and then Zeus started screaming bloody murder, still locked in a fight with Cronus, who he’d thought had the gem. Dumbass.
The necklace, unclipping with ease, fell away from his neck. The black sins that once rested in his chest now danced outside of his body, swirling in high arcs of inky smoke before sucking into the necklace.
“No!” Zeus roared and lunged for the necklace, which was floating toward Narida and the trunk.
“You lost. Your magical judgement has been issued. The sins are now owned by the Titans,” Narida called out, standing tall.
Titans and gods popped in around the border of the landscape, all eyes on Zeus. Something was … happening to him. His body vibrated with rage as crackles of lightning crawled up his arms.
Like this was the sign they’d been waiting for, every single god pulled weapons out of thin air, launching a coordinated attack on the Titans. Other gods popped into the space as well, in what was clearly a well-planned attack. It was total anarchy. I ran for the trunk at the same time as Hepatitis. Peering over my shoulder, I saw Zeus explode into a ball of lightning and launch at Cronus.
Fucking cheaters! The sins were ours. Now they were going to stage a coup and try to steal them! No way.
Baby girl kicked in my belly, which I took as a sign of agreement with me. My gaze flicked from Hepatitis to the trunk and I groaned. That asshole was going to get there first—he was too fast dammit, and I was actually starting to waddle! The second he touched that trunk he would vanish and it would be lost forever.
“No!” I shouted, thrusting my hand out. He froze. “Good girl,” I muttered, completely freaked out that my baby could freeze people like her daddy.
Hurling my pregnant ass the last distance, I wrapped one hand around the trunk and the other around the necklace that had appeared on top of it.
“Maisey!” Cronus shouted. I turned to find his look of horror, but only for a second before the baby zapped me away to another place. My feet slammed on the ground and I opened my eyes to find myself surrounded by miles and miles of snowy land.
“Oh God.” Frigid wind bit into my skin as I grabbed my belly, my teeth chattering. Baby girl had brought Mommy to Antarctica or something, but at least I had the trunk and necklace … right?
Chapter 12
Crossing a frozen tundra, pregnant, while lugging a damn trunk of evil, was not my favorite way to travel. “Next time take Mommy to Bali. B-A-L-I,” I told baby Titan. Thankfully, there appeared to be a cabin sitting in the distance, so I laser focused my vision to it.
Did I think it was awfully convenient that there was a cabin right there where I needed it? Yep, absolutely. But if there was one thing I knew about my baby girl, it was that she loved her mommy as much as I loved her.
She wouldn't want me to die, and without shelter in this weather, I’d be dead in minutes. #RightAfterMyFeetFrozeOff
The cabin seemed to get further and further away, the box heavier as I dragged it. I couldn't feel my feet or my fingers by the time I reached the snowed-in front porch. It took me way too long to get the trunk up the couple of stairs, and when the door opened right up without issue, I could have cried.
Hurrying inside, I slammed the door shut and jumped around in an attempt to keep myself warm. Even with the exercise of walking, I felt half frozen. While I bounced, I checked out the cabin, and when I came across some nicely stacked piles of logs and kindling, I could have kissed the last people to use this place.